Shameless attempt to piggyback Dubai’s Tom Cruise fever

Dubai, it would seem, has gone Tom Cruise crazy. Or at least it has if the local media is to be believed.

Just about every media outlet is carrying shots of Cruise dangling off the Burj Khalifa, in spite of the fact that the pictures are of a seriously dubious quality (the pic above is Cruise, honest!). Then there are the rumours of Sheikh Zayed Road being shut down in stretches for filming (no minor task), not to mention the ongoing debates about where TC is staying (Kipp knows precisely where he is, but we’re keeping quiet). Reports have also placed him at Ski Dubai, another supposed filming location. And don’t forget the thousands who applied to be extras in the hope of sharing the big screen with the big (not literally) star.

On one website readers are being slightly duped by a thumbnail image of two men accompanied by a caption: “Cruise in Dubai.” Click on the caption, and you get images not of Cruise but of Jeremy Renner, star of the Hurt Locker and Cruise’s co-star in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Even the leader of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is on board with it all. According to the Financial Times, he gave permission for his personal jet to be used to transport equipment for the production team. Apparently, he has also received Cruise in person and shown him how to handle a falcon.